Platonic Republic
The Platonic Republic, commonly known as Greece, was a Mediterranean country in Imperium Offtopicum XIV, created by Ailedhoo after Sonereal doomed his Pirate Confederacy to oblivion. It was a despotic state that enforced a rigid caste system based on Kallipolis. Contrary to its claim to operate in strict accordance with the ideals of reason and justice, its foreign policy was headstrong and belligerent, twice nearly precipitating wars with the Roman Empire and managing to antagonize almost every country on Earth prior to its collapse. Beset by internal dissent over its political hypocrisy and draconian domestic policy, the state degenerated into civil war in 2106, was conquered and subsequently annexed by the Soviet Union. History The Platonic Republic was formed out of a collection of postwar neo-Classical city-states. It almost immediately provoked war with Rome over geo-historiographic semantics that only defused after threats to call in forum moderators. It was an early participant in UNVIFOR, but mission commander LGen al-Karimi ordered Greek forces to withdraw in 2105 over concerns that the Republic intended to pursue unilateral aggressive action against Japan in contempt of the mission mandate. In the winter of 2104, riots in Salisbury, New Rhodesia led to a fire in the Platonic embassy; condemning Rhodesia as "inferior", Athens announced it was appointing its own investigator and demanded Rhodesian compliance. Salisbury refused, calling it needless complication, and reacted with outrage when Athens then demanded "token slaves" to rebuild the embassy. While a compromise was eventually reached, the incident permanently scarred Greek–Rhodesian relations. A similar incident occurred in Berlin in 2105 when the Greek ambassador Spiro Murga was shot by a German staffer; the gunman explained in court that "I was just sick of that man shouting the word Justice at me." Testifying to Greece's vastly reduced international presence, Athens did not attempt to intervene as it had in Rhodesia. Athens' admission to practicing slavery led to widespread international denouncement. Relations with the United Arab Republic began to deteriorate after Athens published its communiqués with Jerusalem regarding sphere of influence over Libya in order to score political favour with Japan. Texarkana announced it would boycott Greece's planned Olympic Games over accusations the facilities were being constructed with slave labour, provoking a vitriolic argument over political philosophy that only ended with direct threat of intervention by the board moderator. It did succeed, however, in encouraging Athens to reconsider its slavery policy. First Thessalonian crisis In 2105, Rome took control of Thessalonica ahead of planned Greek expansion; Athens latched on to government statements that it would need to compensate the Platonics as the overture to a territory swap, offering the city of Rome and two remote Caribbean islands (neither of which it controlled at the time) in exchange for the city. Emperor Andreas refused, as the territories were too remote to serve national strategic interest. The result was another semantic diatribe; Rome annulled its defensive pact signed the previous year and Greece almost immediately adopted bellicose rhetoric, going so far to petition the UAR's military support in a potential war. First Vietnamese expedition The Thessalonian crisis was only put to bed after Japanese threats against UNVIFOR in 2105 led Greece and Rome to adopt a hard line and begin musing a pre-emptive attack. This put Platonic forces into conflict of interest with the mission mandate, and LGen al-Karimi ordered them out of the country. Athens declared it would recognize the Hanoi Council as the "legitimate" government of North Vietnam and pledged its full military support. Rome was initially willing to collaborate but backed down over fears of ostracizing itself from the international community. The Greek expedition was intercepted by the Japanese navy, suffering total losses and thousands of prisoners. Athens immediately sued for peace; Japanese terms were surprisingly lenient, repatriating all captives and only requesting increased trade, particularly military, between the two countries. Second Thessalonian crisis In the Summer of 2105, shortly after Rome ceded Thessalonica to Greece, the region declared independence in protest of Greco-Roman imperialism. Athens responded with immediate mobilization, denouncing the breakaway republic as "anarchists" and dismissing the move as Japanese-sponsored subterfuge. Rome and Austria were initially supportive of the police action, with Rome pledging troops of its own, although Indonesia and the UAR criticized what they saw as flagrant human rights abuse and a policy that would destabilize the Mediterranean region. General Xylon Toto led a ruthless military assault that killed 5000 out of 6500 militiamen, provoking a mass exodus by the city's surviving population to Libya, spurring the creation of the People's Militia. The bloody crackdown was universally condemned and led to a public backlash against Emperor Andreas, who severed military cooperation with Greece. Operation Devil-Fish In the Winter of 2105, Greece broke its peace treaty with Japan to aid Rome in a unilateral joint strike against Taiwan. The operation, codenamed "Devil-Fish", had originally been proposed at the start of the year but did not attempt to coordinate with UNVIFOR. The joint expeditionary force was commanded by Emperor Andreas; General Toto was supposed to act as advisor for the Greek forces but was wounded by People's Militia militants during passage through the Suez Canal and withdrawn from the mission. The campaign was a complete disaster and crippled both countries' militaries, permanently shattering the Platonic Republic's international power. Libyan crisis and civil war Immediately following Operation Eunomia in 2105, the People's Militia began campaigning for open independence. Athens claimed it had learned its lesson from Thessalonica, establishing a special counterterrorism unit dubbed the Cerberus Pack to decapitate the organization's leadership, but subsequent rhetoric strongly suggested the government would carry out an identical punitive action. Anticipating a switch to the People's Militia, Ailedhoo began deliberately sabotaging the Platonic government, ratcheting up its domestic hardline and greatly inflating the government's ego, culminating in the development of the "Tower of Plato" in the Fall. Public agitation suggested the situation was growing outside to government's ability to curtail it, and the United Arab Republic, Rhodesia and Indonesia attempted a diplomatic intervention to forestall a potential civil war, of which only Jerusalem achieved a dialogue. Closed-door negotiations ended in an agreement for Athens to repatriate the Thessalonian exiles at state expense in exchange for the cancellation of the Libyan police action and exile of the Milita's leader Abu al-Fadl Abdulrashid to the UAR. The deal managed to temporarily ease tensions and provided Jerusalem the opportunity to indoctrinate Abdulrashid into Operation Ansar. The move backfired, however, after Abdulrashid's deputy Usman Almasi exploited the ensuing power vacuum to redirect the Militia toward open militarism. The attempted assassination of General Toto reignited the Governing Caste's desire to forcibly stamp out the group. Concurrently, the decisive defeat of the Greco-Roman expedition at Taiwan led to a coup within the Philosopher Council itself, which accused the Republic's de facto head of state Takis Papadakis of populist cronyism and even went so far as to denounce Toto. Lack of police manpower led to widespread riots throughout the Republic, and in the Spring of 2106 the Soviet Union announced it was executing a "peacekeeping" operation to prevent the chaos from degenerating further. Russian invasion and occupation In a last-ditch attempt to restore control, Platonic authorities commenced violent crackdowns on any and all opposition, provoking armed resistance across the country culminating in the assassination of Papadakis. Soviet forces seized control of the capital region and installed a junta composed of Russian officers. Libya declared independence under a joint transitional government unaffiliated with the People's Militia. The UAR immediately recognized Libyan independence and negotiated its release from Russian control the following season. Almasi attempted to assert his Militiamen as the legitimate Greek successor government but was rebuffed by the Soviets, resulting in the organization beginning open attacks against "Russian imperialism". Rome attempted to reassert itself as an alternative sponsor for a peacekeeping mission but was likewise rebuffed by Russia, and declarations of support to the Militia began Moscow's pursuit of confrontational foreign policy vis-à-vis Constantinople. Soviet obstinacy began to provoke international attention; Indonesia laid out a plan for a multilateral peacekeeping mission to reduce political tensions that was endorsed by Russia, Rome, Germany and the UAR, but that was pre-empted by full Russian military occupation the following season. Almasi and his faction were by now almost completely disavowed, and on 8 September the Libyan government issued a formal request for Egyptian intervention that was endorsed by Abdulrashid. With United Arab support, the militants were put down and Libya achieved formal recognition later that season. By November, Militia paramilitaries were crushed; Russian forces took control of remaining Greek territory, arrested the surviving Philosopher Council and deported them to Siberia. With the political situation stabilized the Soviets dismissed the Indonesian peace plan; Jerusalem attempted to implement a supplementary UN aid mission to Greece (UNAMIG) but was confounded by lack of Russian cooperation. While Russia had originally planned to establish Greece as three self-governing splinter states, it was never followed through, and during the five-year time skip between turns 13 and 14 Greece was directly annexed into the Soviet Union. Government The Republic adhered to a rigid caste system based on Plato's ordering of the soul: The Philosopher Caste comprised national and regional governors and state bureaucrats. It was headed by the Philosopher Council, a body of aristocrats represented by Takis Papadakis that exercised absolute authority over state policy. The Guardian Caste consisted of the armed forces, domestic police, and medical staff. The Productive Caste was a blanket for everyone else, from factory workers to skilled artisans. Each caste wore colour-coded clothing (blue, green and red, respectively) and was expected to defer to the caste above. Social mobility, if even possible, was heavily restricted, and the working class in particular remained maligned until the demands of the war effort against Japan led to a program in which brevet promotions were granted to Craftsmen to serve in paramilitary units. depicting a typical diplomatic exchange]] The Platonic Republic was infamous in both domestic and foreign policy for its inflexibility and brinkmanship. Domestic protests were often put down with force, and the government refused to adapt itself to external pressures under the mantra that it was governed by Reason and therefore could do no wrong. Its foreign relations, particularly with Rome, were characterized by a cyclical boom-bust that could oscillate within a single season. A founding member of MECTU, it attempted to pursue permanent alliances with neighbouring Mediterranean powers, particularly the United Arab Republic, and establish scientific and military trade deals with virtually every country on Earth, but its trademark volatility often scuttled the agreements and it was prone to tantrums when refused, further marring its reputation. Its headstrong self-righteousness became such a nuisance that Texarkana excused its abandonment of UNVIFOR due to the "mutual threat" of Greek posturing. Category:Former dictatorships Category:Greek-speaking countries and territories Category:European countries Category:Countries in IOT14